~ RIG ~“Yo, Rig. What’s going on? Why weren’t you at the seminar this morning?” Charlie asked from the couch where he and Jack were sprawled playing video games as I walked into the house, very tense, a few minutes later.I wanted to growl, but just shrugged and kept walking towards the kitchen. “Nothing, I just needed to get out.”“You weren’t at lunch either, though,” Jack pointed out.I rubbed my face and walked to the fridge, considering a beer. It was early, but the last glow of sunlight would die in the room soon as the autumn day passed into twilight.“I’m tired. I took a day off.”“Is our fearless leader worried about losing a certain bet?” Mack laughed, appearing from the hallway. “You should be. I’ve been working on Cara. Something’s up with our little pet.”“How the fuck would you know? You didn’t spend the day with her.”“Says who?” Mack grinned.“Says me, who did.”My packmates all leaped on that, shouting over each other, demanding to know what I had done, and when, and
~ CARA ~“I said… he’s not my boyfriend,” I ground out, hands on my hips.Natalie stood on the other side of the library desk looking just as coiffed and perfect as she had that afternoon, though her hair was swept up now, and there was a gorgeous, cashmere scarf wrapped around her long neck.My stomach was twisted like that scarf, but with a strange mix of frustration and jealousy. I had already been feeling sorry for myself that Rig was so obviously hung up on this girl. I couldn’t believe I’d kissed him—and I couldn’t believe how much I wanted to do it again. This guy was a walking red flag! I didn’t have time or energy to figure it out. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about him.Work had been a welcome distraction. But then it had all come crashing back in when Natalie had shown up twenty minutes earlier and proved impossible to deflect. When I had to help another student, she’d simply waited, then started in again when they left.It was the first time I had prayed for my shift to be
~ RIG ~I glared at my ex-girlfriend, furious. I couldn’t believe she was trying this shit. “I don’t need a fucking thing from you.”“Oh, really, Rig? Because from my perspective, that little human’s got her fingers twisted right into your fur and you aren’t even growling about it. Your dad might put up with the man-whoring, but you’re out of your mind if you think he’s going to consider a human for his future pack Luna.”I snorted. “You’re so full of yourself, you don’t have a clue—”“Rig, I followed you today. I saw you with her when you didn’t know anyone was watching.” Her eyes clouded, but she blinked to clear them. “I know you. You watch her the way you used to watch me. She makes you smile. She made you laugh. She got you to pet kittens for fucks sake.”“So?”“So, you have feelings for a human, Rig.”“Bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about her.”Natalie’s perfectly manicured brow arched and she folded her arms. “Oh, really? Then you won’t mind if I tell her about the bet.”Shock r
~ CARA ~My hands kept shaking and I couldn’t make them stop. I was on the edge of tears, and I didn’t really understand why. Except that watching Rig with Natalie—even the furious Rig—had made it so very clear how well those two knew each other.Rig with Natalie was the same Rig who slouched around with his friends when there was no one else with them. He wasn’t trying. He wasn’t pretending. Even if he hated her, he knew her. He spoke with her like someone he could be himself with, and never fear losing. Unguarded.It was the way he’d started to talk to me that afternoon at the fairgrounds, before everything went to shit. That was when I’d realized Rig used arrogance and flirting like a shield. A wall he could hide behind.But earlier that day his wall had been down. I’d spent hours with the Rig who had nothing to prove and he was… fun. Sweet. Thoughtful. And funny as hell. Hot as hell, too. Unfortunately.And then I’d kissed him—shocked him. But when he came alive… the hunger in him
~ RIG ~Exactly five minutes later, I stood over her as she used trembling hands to pull her staff card up to the reader on the study-room door and open it.My entire body hummed. I stood over her, right behind her. The temptation to put my hand over hers on the door handle, to use my bulk to press her forward and into the room was almost irresistible. But I knew I couldn’t force this. Everything hung on this moment.When I’d shown up behind her in the aisle, she’d looked over her shoulder with wide eyes. Scared eyes. I’d backed off, almost certain she was going to change her mind. But she hadn’t.Now she was standing here… vulnerable.Even her scent was a state of uncertainty—lust mingling with fear. It was a state that I hadn’t hesitated to use to my advantage with other women countless times. A small push with the Allure to soothe her fear and fuel that fire…But now… now I found myself oddly reluctant to push her. I was desperate to know what she’d decide for herself.So when the
~ CARA ~I had walked into that room with Rig arguing with myself in my head. But when he’d kissed me, pinned me against the wall, and then—deliciously—picked me up and laid me on the table, I hadn’t been able to form a thought beyond “more.”I was lost in a haze of need, mindless with it. I’d never experienced such a wash of emotion and desire in my life. As Rig kissed his way down my neck, then my chest, I sucked in a ragged breath. Then he opened his mouth over my nipple and sucked and my entire body jolted.My hips bucked and I whimpered, aching. When he pulled back to watch me, the tiniest part of my head whispered that I should be self-conscious, that I should be embarrassed, or scared or… but all I could do was claw my fingers through his hair so those strands would fall over his eyes again, trail my hand down that cord on his neck that stood proud because he was fighting so hard to hold himself back. Stroke his shoulders because they were so broad and strong and I’d never felt
~ CARA ~I blinked. In the back of my mind, something screamed caution. I knew that tone, the defensiveness in it. The hurt.I’d hurt him.Was that even possible? Or was he just so good at manipulating women that this whole thing was an act?I sighed. “I didn’t say you weren’t special, Rig,” I ground out. “I said I want my first time to be with someone special… someone who thinks I’m special.”“And that’s not me.” The calm, controlled tone was a warning. He stood there staring at me, challenging me. The little muscles at the back of his jaw twitched and his hands tightened to fists at his side.I should have felt scared. Usually if a guy looked like that I was immediately reminded of my father when he was about to lose his temper. Usually when a guy looked like that, I would get myself away from him as fast as I was able.It was a mark of how reckless I’d become that I stood there, holding his gaze, my own lips pursed because every response I could think of would just play into his ma
~ RIG ~There she is.If I had been in wolf-form my ears would have perked. Mack had sent the alert through the mindlink, and it was as if all the blood in my body rushed to my extremities.I’d caught Cara’s scent as we entered the building and hoped the others wouldn’t pay attention so I could disappear and hunt her down when we split up.I should have known Mack wasn’t going to give up that easily.A surge of protective rage made my breath come too fast, but I just turned with the others to follow Mack, prowling towards the cafeteria.We could all follow the scent, but a human couldn’t. So, as we entered the cafeteria, we had to make our progress through the large space look casual, greeting other friends and classmates as we went—and pretending not to notice the flirtations from the girls that wanted us to join their table.As we moved slowly closer, I watched Cara from the corner of my eye and my stomach got cold. Things hadn’t ended well the night before, but I’d smelled the desi
~ RIG ~ I let my upper lip curl up and bare my teeth. Let him see that he was dealing with a helluva lot more than a spoiled rich kid. His instincts were dulled by humanity and alcohol, but even his dimwitted senses caught the flash of my teeth. He stiffened. I smiled. “My wife wants to share her wedding with her Mom—we eloped, but we’ve just watched some friends getting married and it’s making her think about what we missed, so we’re going to do it properly. Make another memory. And Cara wants to share that with her mom. So, we’re going to renew our vows in front of everyone we care about. Which, sadly, includes you.” He smiled and I wanted to bite his face off. “You are invited,” I growled. “But you
SOUNDTRACK: “Your Daughter” by Chase McDaniel. ***** ~ RIG (Three weeks later) ~ Getting out of my jeep in the driveway of the house that was the site of Cara’s torture turned my stomach. My Alpha power—still difficult to contain at times, making me itchy and prone to aggression—surged as I took in the cracked cement with weeds and grass growing up, the overgrown flower beds now little jungles of three foot weeds, and the grass that was thin and patchy, and mostly dead. This was the place that her fucking father had made her believe no one could love her. This was the place she’d been hurt. This was the place I wanted to burn to the fucking ground. But for today, at least, that wasn’t the assig
SOUNDTRACK: “Unbearable” by Nathan Wagner. ***** ~ CHARLIE ~ Watching Mack salivate over Natalie as she walked up the aisle was a very specific kind of torment. Because even though I was supposed to be watching our friends publicly vow themselves, my eyes kept drifting back to Meg who, alongside Cara and Tessa, was standing with Natalie today. She looked… stunning. Natalie, always with the impeccable taste that I didn’t understand, but could fully appreciate, had draped all the girls in floor-length, light-green, figure-hugging-but-not-clinging dresses that revealed flesh without being suggestive. It was fucking torture.
~ MACK ~ When Natalie and Cara finally reached us on the stage, I knew that there was an exchange with the officiant. Cara and Rig said something, but I didn’t hear it. I just took Natalie’s hands and pulled her up to stand in front of me. I was aware of people speaking after that. The officiant—a wolf who’d been among the rebels, whose aunt was human, and had become ordained—spoke for a few minutes about marriage and what it meant, but all I could think about was the deep pools of her eyes, that hollow in her throat that she’d offered me the night before last, and how my entire blood hummed with love and desire and— There was a ripple of laughter. “Oh, what?” I asked. Someone had asked me something. Oh, right. “I do!”
SOUNDTRACK: “Don’t Give Up on Me” by Andy Grammar ***** ~ MACK ~ I had been shitting myself. Absolutely, one hundred percent, about-to-claw-my-own-hair-off, crapping my pants. When Cara told me about the human traditions around a wedding, and what she was planning to do with Rig for their vow renewal—which included not seeing or sleeping with each other the day before the ceremony, which sounded crazy—I’d joked with Natalie that we should do that too. I’d thought it would be cute and maybe increase anticipation for when we did come back together after the ceremony. I hadn’t banked on my mate getting cold feet about doing this in front of the packs, and how her nerves would kick my insecurities into gear—and that the whole damn thing would b
SOUNDTRACK: “Break Your Fall” by UNSECRET and Marc Scibilia. ***** ~ NATALIE ~ “This is stupid and… and indulgent and it doesn’t matter! I should never have agreed to this. It’s nothing but a dumb, human tradition and… it means nothing. I’m not doing it.” I stood in the bedroom that we’d made into a bridal suite—complete with three-way mirror—and folded my arms. I’d been staring at myself and all I could see were the imperfections. Tessa had done a beautiful job on my make up, but everything else just felt… sticky. My dress was a touch too tight around my breasts. There were too many people here and they were all going to be staring. I could feel Mack out there panting with nerves, but what if he didn’t like the dress? I should have shown it to him! Why had I let Cara talk me into all this traditional nonsense? “Natalie, you get your gorgeous ass out there and marry that man before he sweats through his Armani suit,” Cara growled. “Seriously, don’t make me turn it into an orde
~ RIG ~I started towards her, but was halted almost immediately as I watched in awe while my mate carved through lines of wolves as if they were butter.Claws, teeth, whirling body—despite her bulk, she moved like liquid, tail lashing and claws like wicked hooks designed to tear through fur and flesh.I shook and trembled because my father’s power was shifting to me and my veins were boiling with it—while the rest of me simmered in the rising rage and terror of the wolves around us.The transfer of Alpha should have been peaceful. There was an established hierarchy waiting, swelling with the newfound power. But my father was a liar and cheat, and he’d encouraged his wolves towards the same.The hierarchy, the elders, his advisors, every pack and family of power rolled towards us, howling in rage and fear.And my wolves, newly risen and brimming with the triumph of victory and the added confidence of success, tore right back to meet them.Mack, Charlie, Jack, and Natalie tore for me,
SOUNDTRACK: “Legendz” by AG and Devvon Terrell ***** ~ RIG ~ Everything slowed to a crawl, time seemed almost not to move at all as I watched my father go for my mate and I turned, twisting, pushing my body in ways I never had, panic screaming in my head, frantic to reach him before he got her. I couldn’t move fast enough. He was going to land at her feet before I did and his power would carry him right to her throat. She wasn’t equipped for this… It all washed through me in that second—the rage for what he’d done, the fury about his injustices, the anger that he would still cheat, even before the witnesses, and the shocking weight of grief because that was my mate. But then the second wave arrived that left me desperate, panicked, humiliated and hating myself. If she died right now it was my fault. My side screamed in pain as I launched myself after him, but my father seemed to hang in mid-air. I had time to see Cara bare her teeth and crouch. Everything moved so slowly I could
~ RIG ~My father saw the opening he’d been waiting for, gathered himself on his haunches and launched at me, the light of victory in his eyes.Instinctively, I didn’t even try to meet the attack, just leaped straight into the air in an attempt to deflect, dropping my chin, trying to hide my throat as my father snaked in—and to my horror, he would have taken me, except that was the moment Stephen howled in the link, then sent images to us both:Himself. Head bowed. Shoulders rolled forward. His human form submitted.To me.It was a boom of thunder right over my head. In any context, the submission of an Alpha brought al